Negro League Team Apparently Used NOBs Way Back in 1942!

Back in the summer, reader John Haynes sent me the 1942 newspaper clipping shown above, from The Eau Claire Leader-Telegram. As you can see, it’s an article about an upcoming Negro Major League game featuring the Cincinnati Ethiopian Clowns. What caught John’s eye was the pitcher at far left, Peanuts Nyasses, whose surname is clearly visible on the back of his jersey:

This was 18 years before the White Sox pioneered the modern use of NOBs!

It’s not clear whether other members of the Clowns also wore NOBs, or if any other teams did so. Indeed, most currently available Negro Leagues photos don’t show a rear view, although the occasional rear-view shots don’t show NOBs, at least in my experience.

The funny thing about this is that “Nyasses” wasn’t even Peanuts Nyasses’s real surname. His actual moniker was Eddie Davis, although he sometimes went by Peanuts Davis or Peanuts Nyasses. He was known as the “Clown Prince of Negro Baseball.” His SABR biography offers some good uni-related details:

He wore his baseball cap sideways, and when he was pitching, his windup sometimes featured “flapping of the arms and jerking of the legs.” In addition, he was a member of a team called the Clowns, some of whom painted their faces in circus clown makeup. And then there were the vaudeville-style comedy routines he and his teammates often performed before, or even during, the game.

Here’s a look at Davis/Nyasses’s cap-askew style (more than half a century before it hit the big leagues):

 

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As for the Clowns’ clown makeup, you can see some players wearing it in that newspaper clipping at the top of this article. Here’s a closer look:

All very interesting. But it’s the early NOB that still intrigues me the most. Anyone know more about that?

Finally: I owe a big apology to John Haynes, the reader who sent me the newspaper clipping. As I mentioned at the top of this article, he sent me the clipping last summer, but it got buried on my “to do” list and then I forgot about it for a bit. Better late than never, John — thanks for the contribution, and for your patience!